Master testing card for jacquard knitting machines



April 8, 1930.

F. HUG 753,343

MASTER TESTING CARD FOR JAGQUARD KNITTING MACHINES Filed NOV. 22 1924 Z? r Li 19 I 11 F 12 "m L :70

Patented Apr. 8, 1930 UNITE STATES PATENTOFFICE FRANK HUG, or BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, AssIGNoB TO'FRANKLIN KNITTING MILLS,

me, on NEW YORK, N. Y., A conronnrroN or EW YORK I durable in operation.

MASTER TESTING CARD FOR JACQUARDKNITTING MACHINES Application filed N'ovember22, 1924. Serial No. 751,570. 1

My present invention relates to master testlng cards, more particularly master testlng cards for use in connection with acquard attachments for fiat knitting machines and 5 also for flat knitting machines adapted toknit jacquard patterns into fabrics. It is an object of the present invention to produce a simple and efiicient device which is inex-' pensive to manufacture and convenient and My invention aims also to produce a tester that mayeasily-be manipulated on a jacquard attachment for flat knitting machines or for other knitting machines adapted to knit jacquard patterns into fabrics, the purpose being to provide such a device which may be readily used to obtain quick results in the matter of selecting and experimenting with designs intended to be knitted into the fabric. 7

y In the accompanying specification I shall describe, and in the annexed drawing show,

an illustrative embodiment of the present invention. It is, however, to be clearly understood that my invention is not limited to the specific form thereof herein shown and described for purposes of illustration only. Referring to the accompanying drawing illustrating the aforesaid illustrative embodiment of the present invention: I

Fig. 1 is a plan view of said embodiment showing the testing fingers in closed position;

Fig. 2 is an end view'of the same showing the device mounted'upon the jacquard attach- 3 i ment or jacquard knitting machine;

"ally indicated by reference character 10 and side portions'13 and 14:.

portions 11 and 12 and the having the end The end portions 11 and 12 have the upstanding members 15 and 16 at each end thereof, as shown more clearly in Fig. 1 vof the ings for the shafts 18 and-17. Mounted uponv the shafts 18 and 17' are banks of testing fingers 19 and 20, respectively. The fingers; 19 are pivotally mounted on the shaft 18, while the fingers 20are pivotally mounted on the shaft 17-. The fingers 19 and 20 are held against lateral movement with respect to the shafts 18 and17, respectively, by means of thesleeves 21 and 22 at the ends of the shafts V. drawing, for the purpose of forming bear- 18 and-17, respectively. .These shafts are se cured in the bearings 15'16 respectively by means of the. bolts 2324- which are secured into the ends of the shafts 1"(-18 respectively, lock nuts 25. and'26 being provided for securing theparts in place. Mounted upon the. shaft 18 is a bracket 27 which is held'firmly in place on theshaft 18., between the nuts 24 and the. lock nuts 26,

' as shown more clearly in Fig. 1 of the drawing. The purpose of the bracket 27 s will be mademore clear later on in this specifica- I tion.

It will be noted, by referring to F igs. 2 and 3 of the'drawing, that the side pieces 13, and 14 arebeveled, asshown at 28. The purpose of this is to enable the tester to fit snugly over thejacquard, roller, which, in the form vthere shown inthe drawing and illustrated byway of example merely, is substantially hexagonal in cross section. This i arrangement ten'dsto hold thetest'er rigid while the jacquard roller, here designated by;

reference character-30, carries the tester up tothe needlesor needle helpers of the jacquard. knittingmachine or of the jacquard attachment, both beingipreferably of the fiat knitting machine type. n j 7 It will be noted, from a careful inspection of Figs. 1 and of the drawing, that the testingfingers 19 are offset or staggered with respect to the fingers 20. 1 Preferably, the degree of this; offset or staggered relation 'corresponds to one-half of the width of one of the fingers19 or 20.; It may herealso be stated that each of the fingers 19 and 20 corresponds to one of the needle helpers or needles of the fiat knitting machine bed or auxiliary bed, as the case may be. More particularly, each of the fingers 19 corresponds to the needle helpers or needles in one row or course, while each of the fingers 2O corresponds to another row or course of needle helpers or needles. That is, the tester of the present invention is designed to be used in conjunction with a flat knitting machine or attachment adapted to knit jacquard patterns, and has the pattern card engaging ends of the needle helpers or sinker-s mounted in staggered relation with respect to each other. That is, the pattern card engaging end or butt of one needle helper or sinker is higher than the pattern of the needle helper or sinker next to it, so that when the tester is mounted upon the jacquard roller and is brought up into operative engagement with'the pattern card engaging ends or butts of the needle helpers or 'sinkers, the fingers 19 will be adapted to engage the butts or ends of one set of needle helpers or sinkers, sucl as the upper set, While the fingers 20 will be adapted to engage the ends or butts of the remaining set of needle helpers or sinkers, such as the lower set.

Assuming now that the tester of the present invention is to be used in connection with the types of knitting machines and attachments described above, that is, the types of knitting machines in which the pattern card engaging ends'or butts of the needle helpers or sinkers are staggered, and which therefore permits the convenient arrangement of approximately 18 or even moreneedles to the inch instead of only about 9 needles to the inch as heretofore, it will be noted that the side members 13 and 14 bear a scale on which,

from the zero center, the needles are numbered according to even numbers in groups of five each, these groups being themselves numbered 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 outwardly from the zero center, as clearly shown in Fig. 4c ofthe drawing. Similarly, the side member 14: bears a scale in which the units are numbered according to odd numbers, 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9,and' are al-ranged ingroups of five units to either side of the center line, these units themselves being numbered 1, 2, 3, t and 5. By this arrangement each of the fingers 19 and 20 has a number, left or right, in a particular group,

' the fingers on the side member 13 being characterized by the even numbers and the fingers on the side member 14; being characterized by the odd numbers on their respective scales. By means of this arrangement any desired pattern may be diagrammatically or sche- 'matically indicated by a series of numbers,

the even numbers for a given stitch corresponding to the operative or inoperative fingers=19 which in turn correspond to the upper pattern card engaging butts or ends of the needle helpers or sinkers, while the odd numbers correspond to the operative or inoperative fingers 20 which in turn correspond to the lower pattern card engaging butts or ends of the remaining course or row of needle helpers or sinkers.

When now it is desired to use the tester, the operator or designer, wishing to determine how an experimental or test design would look when knitted into the fabric, places the tester upon the jacquard roller 30 in the manner illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3 of the drawing. For this purpose the jacquard roller 30 is provided with the parallelly arranged grooves 31 and 32 disposed longitudinally thereof. The jacquard roller 30 also has a central boss 33, which has a series of small holes 34 therein, to permit the pins 35, mounted on the end pieces 11 and 12 of the tester, to be inserted therein. The purpose of this arrangement is to permit the operator or designer to position the tester upon the jacquard knitting machine or attachment in such a way to bring the fingers of the tester into proper alignment with the staggered pattern card engaging butts or'ends of the needle helpers or sinkers in the bed or auxiliary bed of the knitting machine or attachment.

The operator or designer then selects some portion of the jacquard roller 30, which roller is considerably longer than the tester, and.v

7 engaging butts or ends of the needle helpers or sinkers selected for the particular portion of the pattern now being tested, when the jacquard roller is thrown forward into operative position against the pattern card engaging butts or ends of the knitting machine or attachment.

lVhen the selected fingers on the tester are thrown down, as shown in Fig. 1 of the drawing, those fingers that have been thrown down will. strike the pattern card engaging ends or butts of the needle helpers and advance the needles in. the knitting machine so as to PIOQUCG a certain design upon the fabric to be knitted. The fingers that were left in the out or open position, as shown in Fig. 1 of the drawing, will, of course, not strike the needle helpers and will therefore not operate the needles of the knitting machine, so that the latter will just continue to make plain knitted fabric while the fingers that are open, as shown in Fig. 1 of the drawing, will advance the needles to form a part of the jacquard design. When the fingers are put in the position as shown in Fig. 4 of the drawing, and the tester is brought forward upon the jacquard roller against the pattern card engaging ends or butts of the needle helpers, the pattern card engaging ends of the needle helpers will enter the longitudinal grooves 31 and 32 of the jacquard roller and will therefore not be operated to actuate any needles. I

Accordingly, by the operation of certain of the fingers 19 and 20 into the out position as shown in Fig. 4 of the drawing, leaving certain selected fingers 19 and20 in the down position as shown in Fig. 1 of the drawing, the

. designer or operator may thus test or check a pattern which he has schematically outlined by means of the key numbers corresponding to the various fingers. After the operator or designer has tested the experimental design and has determined that the same is desirable, it is only necessary for him to indicate according to their respective numbers the positions of the operative fingers 19 and 20 corresponding to each row or course of loops of the design to be knitted, from which numbers" the permanent pattern cards may be made.

It will, of course, be obvious that the pattern cards, which do not form a part of the present invention but are more fully set forth and are claimed in another copending application filed September 24, 1924, Serial No. 7 39,481, and entitled Card for jacquard knitting machine will have two rows of perforations defining the two corresponding rows of webs or solid portions for engaging the desired butts or ends of the needle helpers, corresponding to the down positions of the fingers 19 and 20 during the experimental test or run of the pattern.

The device of the present invention pos sesses great advantages in that it is eXceedingly simple in construction, durable in use and very convenient to operate. It enables the ready and convenient determinationof the pattern whichit is desired to check and thus enables the readyand certain manufacture of the cards which are to be made corresponding to the final pattern selected.

What I claim as myinvention is: i

1. A master testing device for jacquard knitting machines and the like, comprising, in combination, a substantially rectangular frame'comprising end and side members, and a set. of testing fingers pivotally mounted on each of said side members.

'2. A master testing device for jacquard.

knitting machines and the like, comprising, in combination, a substantially rectangular frame comprising end and side members, and a set of testing fingers pivotally mounted on each of said side members, the testing fingers of one set being offset with respect to the testing fingers of the remaining set.

3. A master testing device for jacquard knitting machines and the'like, comprising,

in combination, a substantially rectangular frame comprising end and side members, a set of testing fingers'pivotally mounted on'each of said side members, whereby selected ones of. the. testing fingers'of each set may be pivoted into operative position'and the remaining testing fingers of each set left in inopera- 1 tive position, and means for supportingthe operatively conditioned testing fingersof one set in upraised position with the operatively conditioned testing fingers of the otherset in downward position.

4. A master testing device for jacquard knitting machines andthe like, comprising, 1n combinat on, a substantiallyrectangular frame comprising end and sidemembers, a

set oftesting fingers "pivotallymounted on each of said side members, the testing'fingers of one set being offset with respect to the testing fingers of the remaining set, whereby selected ones of the'testing fingers of each set maybe pivoted into operative: position and'the remaining. testing fingers of each set left in inoperative position, and means for supporting the operatively conditioned test ing fingers of one set in upraised position with the operatively conditioned testing fingers of the other set in downward position.

- 5. A master 1 testing device for jacquard knitting machines and the like, comprising,

in combination, a substantially rectangular frame comprising end and side members, and a set of testing fingers'pivotally mounted on each of said side members, and, a characteristic scale associated with each set of testing fingers to designate the individual fingers of the particular set. s

6. A master testing device for jacquard knitting machines and the like, comprising, in combination, a substantially rectangular frame comprising end and side members, and a set of testing fingers pivotally mounted on each of said side members, the testing fingers SOI of one set being offset with respect to the testing fingers of the remaining set, and a characteristic scale associated with each set of testing fingers to designate the individual fingers of the particular set.

7. A master testing device for jacquard knitting machines and the like, comprising,

in combination, a substantially rectangular .set in downward position, and a characteristic scale associated with each setof testin fingers to designate the individual fingers of the particular set.

8. A master testing device for jacquard knitting machines and the like, comprising, in combination, a substantially rectangular frame comprising end and side members, a

set of testing fingers pivotally mounted on each of said side members, the testing fingers of one set being oflt'set with respect to the testing fingers ofthe remaining set, whereby selected ones of the testing fingers of each set maybe pivoted into operative position and the remaining testing fingers of each set left in inoperative position, means for su porting theoperatively conditioned testing ngers of one set in upraised position with the operatively conditioned testing fingers of the other set in downward position, and a characteristic scale associated with each set of testing fingers to designate the individual fingers of the particular set.

In testimony, whereof, I have signed my name to this specification this day th of October, 1924.

Y FRANK HUG. 

